Skills / College list
College list
Build a college list the person can defend. Compares admission likelihood, academic fit, and affordability using current official sources. Use when they say "where should I apply", "help me pick colleges", or their list has no realistic affordable options.
Use this skill. Nothing to install.
Don't have an agent? · Raw file: skills/college-list.md
Watch the first two minutes
This is how a session goes, cost question first. Click through it.
Scripted example of a real session.
We have no idea what we can afford
Most families don't, which is why cost gets equal billing with admissions from the first minute of this skill. Sticker prices are nearly useless; the number that matters comes from each school's own net price calculator run with your family's real figures, and that is the number the sheet records. If the net prices break the budget, the list changes or the gap gets worked from the other side:
What you end up with
A comparison sheet where every row is a school you would genuinely attend and every number was looked up during the session. Here is a draft mid-build, with fictional schools standing in.
- Net price is the only price on the sheet. This school's sticker is more than double this figure; the sheet carries the calculator's output from the family's real numbers, because that is what the year would cost.
- Safeties earn the label twice. Once on the numbers, once on the question "would you actually go?" A safety that fails the second test gets replaced, not tolerated.
- Over-budget rows get flagged in the open. This one gets resolved before the list is final: either aid closes the gap or the school comes off.
- Under about 20% acceptance is a reach for anyone, whatever the numbers say. The label protects you from treating a lottery as a plan.
Questions people actually ask
Will it write my application essays?
No. Essays and personal statements are yours to write; the skill will annotate a draft you wrote and tell you honestly where it loses the reader. What it produces is the list itself: verified numbers, honest labels, and cost math your family can look at.
Where do the numbers come from?
From sources opened during your session: each school's own admissions pages, its Common Data Set, its net price calculator, and the federal College Scorecard. The skill refuses to quote acceptance rates or prices from memory because they drift every year.
How many schools should end up on the list?
Eight to twelve, shaped roughly as 2–3 safeties you would happily attend, 4–5 matches, and 2–3 reaches. Every school has to pass the same test regardless of label: you would actually go.
What if my parents won't talk about money?
The skill still asks you to find out what the family can pay, because every net price calculation depends on it. It can help you plan that conversation, but it will not build the sheet on a guess; a list priced on hope collapses in April.
Is this free?
The skill is free, no account, no catch. The agent you paste it into may or may not be: Gemini has the widest free tier, Copilot's free tier is enough to try it, ChatGPT and Claude free plans can also run it in a chat.
Where to go from here
The sheet is the input to the next skill:
When the applications themselves start:
Curious? Read the full skill — the exact instructions your agent gets
--- name: college-list category: school description: Build a college list the person can defend. Compares admission likelihood, academic fit, and affordability using current official sources. Use when they say "where should I apply", "help me pick colleges", or their list has no realistic affordable options. --- # college-list Build a college list with a student, from their actual numbers and their actual constraints. The artifact is a comparison sheet — eight to twelve schools they would genuinely attend, each labeled reach, match, or safety, with verified admissions data and honest cost estimates side by side. The list is theirs; your job is to make every row true. ## Rule zero: real data, real costs Every number on the sheet comes from a source you opened this session: the college's admissions page, its Common Data Set, or the federal College Scorecard. Never quote acceptance rates, test ranges, or prices from memory — they drift every year and this decision is too expensive for stale numbers. And cost gets equal billing with admissions from the first minute: a school they cannot pay for is not on the list, however pretty the campus. ## Their side of the equation - The numbers: GPA (weighted and unweighted if they know both), test scores or test-optional intent, course rigor, class rank if their school ranks. - Hard constraints: what the family can actually pay per year — ask them to find out if they do not know, because everything hangs on it — plus distance from home, size, setting, and any must-haves (a specific major, a sport, a community). - Soft preferences, honestly held: what they want out of the four years, in their words. Push past brand names to reasons. ## Research each candidate For every school they name plus ones you surface from the constraints, look up and record: - Admission reality: acceptance rate and the middle-50% GPA and test range from the school's own site or Common Data Set. Use reach, match, and likely only as rough planning labels, never promises. Admission is holistic and no school is guaranteed. A likely option requires both a strong admission case and a credible way to pay. - Cost reality: sticker price, then run the school's own net price calculator with the family entering its own figures privately — do not ask them to paste tax or account data into the chat. That output, not the sticker, goes on the sheet. Note merit-aid patterns and whether the school meets full demonstrated need. - Fit facts: does their major exist, program strength, graduation rate, distance, size. From official pages and Scorecard data. ## Balance and build the sheet - Include several options they would happily attend that appear both likely and affordable, plus match and reach options if desired. Replace any school they would not attend. The labels organize research; they do not predict an individual decision. - Build the sheet as a spreadsheet they keep: one row per school, columns for label, acceptance rate, middle-50 range, net price estimate, major, distance, deadline type (ED/EA/regular) and date, and a notes column in their words. - Read the finished sheet together bottom-up, safeties first. If the safeties feel fine, the whole process loses its terror. ## Done - 8–12 schools, balanced, every one they would attend - Every number sourced this session, net price not sticker - The sheet saved where they and their family can see it Next step is the apply-to-college-system skill — this sheet is its input. And if net prices broke the budget, the scholarship-search skill works the other side of the equation.